Literacy with an Attitude

By: Patrick J. Finn

Talking Points:

1. Preface/Chapter 1

• "First, there is empowering education, which leads to powerful literacy, the kind of literacy that leads to positions of power and authority. Second, there is domesticating education, which leads to functional literacy, literacy that makes a person productive and dependable, but not troublesome."

When thinking about how this applies to our daily lives it kind of reminds me of how some white, English speaking American's have the feelings that immigrants should speak English. So we want them to be literate, enough so that they will be able to purchase an item in your store while speaking  in English, but not literate enough so that they are able to open up a competitive store next to yours. Just enough English so that it is convenient, not a bother. Also, as English speaking white Americans, how can we require that level of literacy from immigrants without providing them the means to do so?

• "They expected people in authority to be authoritarian, and I gave them what they expected.

Delpit, anyone? 😆

2. Chapter 2

• "In the working-class school, work was following steps in a procedure".
• "In the middle-class school, work was getting the right answer". 
• "In the affluent school, work was creative activity carried out independently". 
• In the executive elite school, "the point of school work was to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life at the top".

These separate definitions of what work meant at every level of school, as observed by Anyon, were very interesting to me. What really get's me is the fact that I feel like my classroom definition of "work" would be a combination of all 4 of these, so what does that mean?

3. Chapter 14

• "Transforming intellectuals take sides. They are on the side of democracy and social justice".

A lot of what was said about how Peterson teaches stood out to me, but I think this really sums it up. Yes, we have to teach the curriculum. Yes, we have to tell them what the book says. Yes, we need to "check off all the boxes" for administration. However, that does not mean that we cannot teach our kids both sides of history. We can teach them about Christopher Columbus, but we can teach them that he was not as nice and kind as our books say. We can celebrate Valentine's Day and Mother's Day...but also International Women's Day! Peterson made so many excellent point about teaching all sides no matter how "political" it may be. 

Argument Statement:
This author argues that there is so much teaching that needs to be done outside of the "cookie-cutter" curriculum that most school's provide.

Side Note:

Could we go over the oppositional identity a little more in person? I'm understanding it a little but not to the extent that I think I should...

The Problem We All Live With - This American Life

By: Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah Jones

For my response to this powerful podcast, I chose 3 quotes that stood out to me that I have responded to.

1. "White people just left and didn't want to deal with it." -(Jones)

This is a common thread through out the whole podcast, and I think through the texts that we have read in this class so far. It was and continues to be easier for white people, or people in power with privilege to "leave and not deal with" all of the issues that continue to exist in our country. In addition, the majority of the families that attended the informational night at Francis Howell were very quick to jump to conclusions and make excuses as to why the Normandy students were now given the option to leave. One parent even jumped a far to say that the kids were the reason that the school was no longer accredited. If she had any brains in her head, she would be able to put 2+2 together and figure out that behavior of children does in no way equal a district losing their accreditation. Her projection of her prejudices onto school aged children is embarrassing and honestly very sad. It is so sad that somewhere in her life, she was given the idea that poor people of color are troublesome, dangerous, and a burden that she, and everyone else at Francis Howell "has to deal with".

2. "I deserve to not have to worry." -(Beth Cirami)

If there was anything that screamed privilege in all that we've read/heard, it was this woman. She felt so strongly that because she "shopped for schools" and put in that effort, that children who were less fortunate simply because of where they lived, should not have those same privileges as her children. Much like Delpit and Johnson suggest, we need to be okay with discomfort if anything is going to change. Also, I want to know what world this woman lives in where she thinks that just because she picked this "perfect school district" that her children don't have to be afraid of drugs or violence. I'm sorry, but I grew up in a predominantly white, middle-class town where nothing ever happened. And what happened you may ask? My junior year of high school, someone in my grade who was really struggling with his mental health brought a gun to school. Thankfully no one was hurt, but that doesn't mean that it didn't shake up my entire town and made everyone look at how our "perfect little town" really wasn't as perfect as everyone thought. My mom then had to worry about me more than ever, but that doesn't mean she never had to worry. Everyone feels worry about their children in today's education system, no matter their skin color.

3. "This is not a race issue. This is a commitment to education issue." -(Woman)

This woman really got my blood boiling, and not because of what she said because that was just foolish. She got me so frustrated because of how out of touch with reality she is and how blind she is to her privilege. With her pleas to the crowd, she is showing just how truly racist she is and how she is using and diversion sh thinks will work to show people why they should agree with her. No one said to her that her child's education would change, or that any of the staff of Francis Howell would leave, or that her child wouldn't get into the college they wanted. If anything, she couldn't be farther from the truth because of how Francis Howell greeted the new students on the first day of school. As a district they were committed to making the students from Normandy feel welcomed and a part of their school. I really hope that after the fact this woman was able to look back and see that the school was able to continue to not only serve her child(ren), but also those of Normandy without any negativities as a result.

I think that listening to a podcast was so much more effective in telling this story than, let's say, an article. Being able to hear the voices of the real people in that town meeting, or hearing Mah'ria get choked up when talking about approaching the microphone really aided in the beautiful storytelling of this piece.

I am home with my family this weekend in Massachusetts and they were asking about school, of course. I got to talking with them a lot about this class and about how opening it has been for me. I mentioned the fact that instead of reading this week I had to listen to a podcast and respond to it. My dad brought up the fact the "All In The Family" and "The Jeffersons" got a mini-reboot this week and they just performed a live episode. We got to talking about how that show was able to teach people and open people's minds to the injustices that existed then and continue to exist now. It got me thinking about how effective it can be to tell these stories outside of a textbook and how many more people they would reach as a result.

                                                            

Well, with the reboot of these two famous television shows came the shows then and now writer Norman Lear starting those "hard conversations", and even introducing the first episode of the show with a 10 minute breakdown of what he feels the show can and will do for the prejudices of our country. Here is an interview with him from the Today Show where he dives deeper into what he feels needs to be done to make change. I think what he has to say is very important and that these topics might make people uncomfortable....and that is okay. Discomfort is what makes people start taking, and that is what we need. 

The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

🙋The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children👶

3 Talking Points:

1.  "Most likely, the white educators believe that their colleagues of color did, in the end, agree with their logic. After all, they stopped disagreeing, didn't they?" This idea of "beating someone down" until they "understand" your opinion is prevalent in this text. Just because someone stops disagreeing with you, it does not in fact mean they agree. If anything you, as the other party, should reflect on yourself and wonder why in fact they are giving up on this conversation. DO they need to be somewhere? Is it possible that you offended them? It's your job to find out and truly care for colleagues or whomever you are talking to. After all, "You can only beat your head against a brick wall for so long before you draw blood".
   
2.  The conversation between Joey and his teacher really struck a cord with me. In my classroom, when a child asks me how to spell a word I ask them to try it first, much like any other teacher would do. However, usually after they have tried it, they want to know if they are right or not. My response is usually some sort of praise for their attempts, (with EBD kids the patience runs thinner than most), and then I show them how the words would look "if you read them in a story". The kids tend to respond well to this because in my class we have stories of all children, including ones that look and talk like them. However, if I was Joey's teacher, in a class deep in the South, this might not be the case. I think it is so important, as we have talked about before to have books that do reflect the lives and dialogues of the students in your class. Even though we did not get to hear much about what Joey thought, I'm sure that book really hit home for him, and he probably went back to it again. 



This is an example of a text I have in my classroom that shows all types of kids. It talks about the beautiful hair of little African American girls, the beautiful freckles of little pale-skinned girls, and everyone in between.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29101499-beautiful

3. On page 38, Delpit talks about a students work that she duplicated and sent around to other faculty members to get their comments. This student was Native American, and as a result wrote differently than everyone else in her environment. Some of the faculty went as far to say that she should not be in the teacher preparation program for her writing. I found it very interesting (more like appalling) that people of such power would jump to a conclusion like that from one assignment. Not to mention, this was a written assignment in a way that she is not used to and the errors consisted of spelling mistakes and sentence fragments. What does that say about the power that those individuals feel they have over the students if they are willing to jump to conclusions that quickly, over an essay. No one say her teach, no one evaluated her, just off of one assignment. 

Argument Statement: Lisa Delpit argues that a large problem in teaching children of color is the fact the non-POC do not want to listen to what POC have to say. They might be listening but "They don't really want to hear what you have to say. They wear blindness earplugs." She states that white people use research and facts to support what they say, and argues that being able to research and find those facts is privilege, privilege that some POC might not have to back what they say and feel

"Colorblindness is the New Racism" and "All Lives Matter"

"Colorblindness is the New Racism" By: Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman

"All Lives Matter" By: Kevin Roose

After reading these two texts, the first word that comes to mind is eye-opening. Although it was not as much of an "easy-read" that Johnson was, there were so many analogies and scenarios in these two texts that really made me re-read and ponder for some time. Overall I feel that I enjoyed Armstrong and Wildman a lot more than reading Johnson and I felt that it was a lot more applicable to my life and especially my teaching. However, one important connection between the two continues to be the idea of acknowledgement. "Say the name"as Johnson would say, or as Armstrong & Wildman put it:

"Society cannot battle a phantom that it cannot recognize and name".

There were so many times in the Armstrong and Wildman text that I furiously highlighted because of how eloquently put these horrible truths were stated. Some that really stood out to me were on page 66. They go into talking about how "if educators do not teach about the importance of analyzing how privilege operates, students will graduate ill-equipped to work effectively in a diverse environment." and also how after President Obama was elected, people described the U.S. as "post-racial, as if the election of a Black man to the nation's highest office meant no more conversation about race was needed". These two quote really hit me because I feel like for a while, this idea of "Oh, we have a black president, everything is fine now" was truly how many people felt. It was almost as if some white people felt like they were doing POC a "favor" by electing him, or extending the olive branch, as if to say, "we're good now, right?"

Lastly, I think my personal biggest take from the Johnson, the Armstrong and Wildman, and the Roose texts is that there are so many forms of privilege that I, as a heterosexual white female don't even realize in my every day life. Armstrong and Wildman put it perfectly when they said "The possessor of the knapsack of privilege could reliably depend on the advantages they provide, even though she or he remained unaware of them".

(citation within the picture)

Before these readings, if I heard the word privilege I automatically thought about money or the color of my skin. However, when l took a step back, read these texts and truly thought about it, there is so much privilege that I was completely unaware of that I was "reliably depending on". For example, being heterosexual is something that I never had to think about. When buying my house, I didn't have to think if the real estate agent would treat us differently as a couple, or if my neighbors would disapprove of us sitting on our patio together. The invisible knapsack is so real and I truly believe that Armstrong and Wildman said about how if students are not educated to acknowledge and recognize privilege, it is going to disadvantage them in their lives greatly. 

I loved the classroom exercises that Armstrong and Wildman offered, and I think that this video contributes to the ideas of how simply acknowledging privilege can make a world of difference to peoples perspectives of the world. 

👨 Privilege, Power, and Difference 👳

By Allan G. Johnson

3 Talking Points: 

1. "Class differences have huge effects on people's lives, but class is fundamentally different from gender, race, and sexual orientation". In some ways, yes I do agree with this. However, for people who are born into generations and generations of low class, it can be very difficult, and close to near impossible to break that cycle.
2.  Acknowledging the words that people "don't like" to hear or that provide that "shock factor" when discussing something like race privilege or gender privilege is going to make them more comfortable and open to them. Education can and will go a long way for someone who doesn't see or doesn't believe that certain forms of privilege exists 
3. There are so many different forms of privilege that appear in our everyday lives that we either don't see because we are used to them, we accept them as truths, or we accept them because we feel that there is not much that can be done to fix them. Some examples that stood out to me:
• "Men can succeed without other's being surprised".
• "Whites don't find themselves slotted into occupations identified with their race like black are slotted into support positions or Asians into engineering". 
• "Heterosexuals can live in where they want without having to worry about neighbors who disapprove of their sexual orientation". 

Argument Statement:

This author, Johnson, argues that privilege is all around us, in many different forms, and the first step in eliminating it is acknowledging it exists and make change. By educating ourselves about the world around us we are contributing to the change and shift in the ideas of the people around us. 

Introduction

Hello! 

My name is Taylor Brooks and I am in the EC SPED Master's Program. I teach at Mount Pleasant Academy in the PK-2 self-contained classroom. MPA is a therapeutic school so all of my children are on IEP's and have behavioral/emotional disorders. My students are my world and I am so in love with my school. I can truly say I love going to work everyday. In my spare time I am a cat mom to an adorable black cat named Loki (after the God of mischief...very fitting), I love taking trips to Narragansett for some Mew's or Brickley's with my boyfriend, Peter, and we just bought a home which takes up a majority of our time.